Construction of the Pourquoi Pas? Started in 1903 at a St.Malo yard for Dr. Jean Baptiste Charcot.

From 1908 to 1914 she sailed on a number of oceanographic and scientific expeditions; in the Antarctic
from 1908 to 1910 and the North Atlantic from 1912 to August 1914. She was then laid up until the end of World War I. From 1920 to 1936, the Commandant Charcot organized scientific expeditions every year along the French coasts, the North Atlantic or the Arctic.

In July 1936, she sails for Greenland on an hydrographic mission. On her return leg she stops in
Iceland for repairs to her boilers and leaves from Reykjavik September 15 for Copenhagen. Caught in a
heavy storm the following day she breaks up against the Iceland coast and sinks quickly. There is only one sole survivor out of a crew of 41 and only 23 bodies – of which that of Commandant Charcot – were recovered from the sea with some debris from the ship (on show in the Museum).